To Teach His Own
by Parsec
Summary: Professor Utonium tries out a new method of training the Powerpuff Girls...but what could this mean for Townsville?
1. Chapter 1

**__**

To Teach His Own

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

CHAPTER 1

The City of Townsville, one of the safest cities in the world, thanks to the efforts of the resident crimefighters, the Powerpuff Girls. This super-powered trio could seemingly handle any crime or disaster that came about, and even if they had their occasional setbacks, they never lost…and as a result, the citizens felt safe under their watchful eyes.

One citizen was concerned about them, however. Professor Utonium, their creator, couldn't have been prouder of his three girls, but most recently, he had begun to wonder if they were really strong enough to handle _anything _that might arise. They had managed well enough up to this point, but he became increasingly worried that one day they might be faced with something too powerful for them. He decided to continue training them, just to put these fears out of his mind.

The professor watched through the glass leading into the training room. The girls were surrounded by a dozen robots, which closed in and attacked them. In a quick flurry of punches, though, all of them were taken down. Buttercup wasted no time in leaving the training room the instant the scenario was over, saying, "Okay, are we done _now_?"

"Well," the professor said, "I'd really like to run that last one through again, I think you could lear—…"

"Professor," Blossom interrupted. "This is super and all, but do we really need to train like this anymore? I mean…" She smiled and waved a hand in dismissal, "…it's not like we ever _lose_…"

Bubbles nodded in agreement, folding her arms, "Yeah! We're the _best_, aren't we?"

"Of course you are," the professor reluctantly agreed, "but don't you want to get even _better_?"

"What's the point, if we're already on the top?" Buttercup asked.

With a sigh, the professor deactivated the training room and said, "Fine…we'll end the training session here, then. Go upstairs, and I'll be up shortly to get dinner ready."

"YAY!" all three girls chorused together, and in three quick flashes of light, they left the lab. The professor sat down at his desk, drumming his fingers idly as he thought about what they said. He always encouraged them to better themselves, but lately, they seemed to be lax on their exercises. They did them, and successfully, but half-heartedly. This troubled him, in that they weren't trying to learn anymore.

Picking up a tape from the desk, he popped it into a VCR and watched the image appear on a monitor. It was a news recording of the girls battling Mojo Jojo…although he had constructed a battlesuit that was fast and could withstand a hit from a tank, the girls showed up and blasted it to pieces almost like it wasn't there to begin with. The fight lasted a while, though, because they were just messing around at first, dodging its attacks easily. All three of them came out of the fight with bored expressions, even.

_Maybe that's it,_ he thought to himself. _Maybe the reason why they're not keeping a serious attitude…they've run out of challenges. No villain in Townsville can stand up against them, so there's no incentive to improve, no reason to better themselves. It almost makes me wish they _would _lose once and a while, just to push them into striving harder. But I don't want to see them lose…and besides, if they did, it would be all over for them. My training exercises can only take them so far; there has to be a better way to simulate this…something to make them realize they need to still improve, make them be more serious about what they're doing, and not _really_ put them in any terrible danger…_

* * *

The next day, Bubbles and Buttercup were sitting at the table, hungry and ready for dinner. Bubbles noticed Blossom come up from the lab and asked, "So, what did he say?"

"He's busy with something and doesn't want to be disturbed," Blossom told them. "He just said there's some leftover pizza in the fridge we can have."

"Works for me!" Buttercup said, flying to the refrigerator and pulling out the slices of pizza. In a couple of minutes, it had been dispensed out onto plates, and warmed in the microwave. "I call dibs on the cheese!" she added as she prepared them.

"Hey!" Bubbles protested, noticing that just the mushroom pizza was left, "You _know_ I don't like mushrooms!"

"Then you shoulda called the cheese pizza faster," Buttercup smirked.

Blossom was about to say something, then just waved it off, "Nevermind, let's just eat. Bubbles, pick the mushrooms off if you don't want them."

They sat down to eat…Bubbles carefully picked off every mushroom from her pizza, stacking them in a small pile nearby. When she was done, Buttercup reached over and scooped the mushrooms up, saying, "I'll take those," sprinkling them over her own pizza.

"Buttercup!" Bubbles shouted.

"What? You still got your cheese pizza now, don't you?" Buttercup told her.

Blossom was about to say something about being nice to her sister, when the hotline rang in the other room. She dashed over and answered it, "Hello, Mayor?"

The mayor's voice came from the other side, "Oh, hello, Blossom. I hope I'm not interrupting anything…"

"No, nothing at all," Blossom said back. "What's the problem?"

"Well, there's someone here taking shots at buildings with some kind of laser weapon thing," the mayor explained. "I've never seen him before…"

Grinning at that, Blossom said, "Don't worry, Mayor; we'll be right there!" She hung up the phone and shouted, "C'mon, girls! Some new guy causing trouble downtown…let's go!" She shot out from the house, with the other girls right behind her, heading straight for Townsville.

On the way, Blossom told the other girls what it was. Buttercup rolled her eyes and said, "Great, another new guy. These crooks never learn."

"Maybe we can be back in time to watch Puppet Pals!" Bubbles suggested.

Buttercup nodded, "Yeah, let's just finish this guy off as fast as possible so we can get home."

As they cruised high over the street, they could see a few buildings that had been shot by the villain's laser weapon. "Hmm," Blossom said, scratching her chin. "That's odd…it's not very much damage…the shots don't even look like they were aimed at anything important. It's almost as if the guy was attracting attention on purpose…"

"Or maybe he's just an inexperienced _loser_," Buttercup corrected her, then added with a snicker, "Look, I think I see him up ahead… check out that outfit…" Standing on the street way up ahead was a man, dressed in a shiny black outfit that looked like either metal or plastic. His back was to the girls, but he turned around as they approached. He was wearing a mask over his face, with only his eyes visible. His chest was adorned with a triangular green symbol adorned with the symbol of an atom; it was transparent-looking, and glowed with a faint green light.

The girls stopped nearby, hovering in the air, and Blossom called out, "All right, criminal…who are you, and what do you think you're doing?"

The man seemed to laugh to himself, even though they couldn't see his mouth behind the mask. In a voice that was mechanically augmented, he spoke with a deep, resonating echo, "Powerpuff Girls, at last. I knew you would come. I wanted to see this city's worthless little protectors to find out what I was up against, and to face you once before I begin my plans to take over this city."

"Well, once is all you're gonna get!" Buttercup shouted.

"Really," the villain said, unimpressed. "You mean to say you'll fail _that _easily?"

Buttercup frowned and said, "Okay, that's it…I'll take care of this guy myself, all right?" Blossom nodded her okay, and Buttercup flew towards him, pulling back a fist to swing a punch.

Her fist smacked against an invisible field, however. With sparks of green electricity, the field became visible for a second, and Buttercup fell back from it, yelping and clutching her wrist. The man laughed from behind his mask and said, "My turn." Before Buttercup could react, he stretched a hand out towards her, and a beam of green energy blasted out from the palm of his glove, striking her and pushing her back into the side of a building.

"Buttercup!" Bubbles cried out.

Buttercup was stunned, but she looked otherwise all right as she shook off the effects of the impact. Blossom glared at the man, who was still waiting in the street, and said, "Bubbles, attack pattern Gamma-Alpha-5, ready? NOW!" The two of them shot directly towards the man, side by side. He stood, unafraid of their approach. Just before they impacted against him, then split off in opposite directions, circling around him and firing their eyebeams at the spot directly behind him, hoping to strike him since they expected him to flinch back from the initial charge.

Instead, he had already started running _forward_, anticipating their move. The eyebeams struck the ground harmlessly behind him, and he spun around, suddenly throwing two metal claw-like devices. They each struck Blossom and Bubbles dead center and latched around them, pinning their arms to their sides and causing them to drop out of the air, landing on the ground with a thud. They struggled, but couldn't get free from the restraints that held them.

"I see that you're tied up at the moment," the man chortled, "so I'll just leave you be for now…"

By this time, Buttercup had recovered…she cried out in rage and picked up a parked car nearby. Lifting it over her head, she flung it as hard as she could at the man. He already had some kind of device in his hand by this time, though, and pressing a button on it, the car suddenly stopped in mid-flight, hovering in the air surrounded by a wavering field of green energy. Buttercup stared in disbelief as the car was flung back at her suddenly, slamming into her and smashing her against the ground.

"Ah ah ah," the man said, waggling a finger. "No throwing cars around, my friend…try this instead…"

As she got back up, she saw something flying towards her…another one of those claw-like things like the ones that held her sisters. She flew up to avoid it, but it changed direction in midair and struck her anyway, locking her arms to her side similarly. She landed on the street, and with another click of the device he used on the car, she was levitated over near the other girls, who were still struggling to free themselves.

The click of a weapon arming made them stop struggling and look up at him. He had a very wicked-looking blaster aimed at them, and he laughed, "Fools! Was that the best you could do? I feel ashamed for you…ashamed that you would think you're good enough to protect this city of yours. I can destroy you this instant…my weapon is powerful enough. And no, Blossom, don't even bother with your eyebeams; they won't even scratch the weapon's metal."

Blossom was taken aback…_How did he guess I was going to try that?_ she thought. _This guy was prepared to fight us…he knows our every move; he even knew my attack plan! How can we beat him? He's too powerful! But…it's too late now, he has us right where he wants us…_

The man leveled the blaster directly at Blossom, and she clenched her eyes shut, cringing, waiting for the blast that would follow…but there was nothing. She opened her eyes cautiously and saw that he was walking away. "The test is over…I've found what I needed to know," he told them. "There's no need to destroy you now. You three are of _no_ threat to me whatsoever. I'd rather let you live with the humiliation of your defeat, and with the knowledge that you shall _never _be good enough to stop me. I can now begin to conquer the city at my leisure. Farewell, Powerpuff Girls…for Townsville will soon be under the control of me…_Dr. Neutron_!"

Blossom watched as a jetpack on his back ignited, and he flew into the air, a diabolical laugh echoing across the street in his wake. He disappeared off into the distance, and Blossom glanced at her two likewise shocked sisters. Whoever this new villain was, he was far more powerful than anything they had faced in the past. Bubbles spoke up first, "What…are we gonna…do?"

"I don't know…" Blossom replied. "I…I…"

"Oh man, this is not good…" Buttercup said. "How are we gonna stop this…'Dr. Neutron'…whoever he his?"

Blossom gathered her strength and said, "We'll just have to be ready for him the next time he shows up. We've gotta plan, and find a way to get around his defenses. We can do it…we're the Powerpuff Girls, after all!"

"Yeah!" both Bubbles and Buttercup chorused together. After a pause, though, Bubbles looked down at the metal claw restraining her and asked, "Um…how do we get out of these things?"

* * *

A ways away, Dr. Neutron landed in a grove of trees in the suburbs. He looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then quickly removed his shiny black armor, revealing the crisp white lab coat underneath. Taking off the mask, the professor placed it all in a pile, chuckling a little. _I'm glad I got the Mayor's permission to do this,_ he thought_…I'd be in deep trouble if I didn't. But it all went flawlessly. Now, they think there's a villain out there that they can't defeat…we'll see how this effects their training, and maybe, if the girls need the extra push, the city will receive another visit from Dr. Neutron soon! Hehehe…I just hope they don't figure out it's me…_

**__**

TO BE CONTINUED…


	2. Chapter 2

**__**

To Teach His Own

By: Mark J. Hadley

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CHAPTER 2

The professor heard the front doors burst open from where he was seated in the kitchen and smiled to himself. _They're home_, he thought. _Time to continue training…_ He got up and looked out from the kitchen, calling out, "Hello, girls! Where did you run off to?"

All three of them flew over to him, grabbing hold of his arms in a tight hug. "Professor!" Blossom stammered, "W-we were fighting…and this guy…a-and he was…"

Buttercup interrupted, "Yeah, and he was all like with the forcefields and energy beams, and _zap, _he…"

"We lost," Bubbles cried out, "an' he beat us and we couldn't even fight back an' he had us trapped an' had the scary ray gun out an' was gonna…"

"Whoa, whoa!" the professor said. "Settle down, girls….Blossom, what happened?"

Blossom regained her composure and said, "Some new villain, named Dr. Neutron. He was attacking the city, but you know what? I think he was just doing that to get our attention so he could fight us…"

"Mm hmm," the professor nodded, thinking, _Well, I'm impressed that Blossom figured that part of it out. She's always been good with reasoning, so I'd better watch my words around her so that she doesn't get suspicious. _He continued, "But you lost, you say?"

Buttercup nodded, "Didn't even stand a chance. He swatted us like _bugs_."

"I'm not a bug…am I?" Bubbles asked softly.

"Of course not, sweetie," the professor answered. "But this Dr. Neutron fellow sounds dangerous…"

"Very," Blossom agreed. "This guy's far more dangerous than anyone we've fought in the past. What should we do, Professor?"

_Uh oh,_ the professor said. _I'd better not give them too much advice. The point of this whole thing is to get them to grow and develop. If I help them figure out a way to defeat Dr. Neutron, then they won't learn to better themselves._ "Uh, well…" he said, coming up with an excuse, "…I really need to find out more about this guy before I can offer any advice…other than to keep at your training. I'm sure you can find a way to beat him."

"All right, we'll…we'll try…" Bubbles said.

The three of them returned to the kitchen table, not having finished their pizza from earlier. The professor walked back to his lab, thinking, _So far, so good…now I'll give them a day or two to see what kind of progress they make, then I can test them again. I'm worried, though…I won't fool Blossom for long unless Dr. Neutron actually does something that appears to be evil…_

* * *

"You want _what?!_" came the mayor's voice from the other end of the phone.

"One building," the professor repeated. "Any one building, like something that has been condemned and you were going to tear down anyway. Please?"

After a pause, the mayor said, "Oh, all right…if it'll really be the best for the girls, then I'll do it!" His voice became fainter for a moment as he called for Ms. Bellum, then louder as he spoke into the phone again, "When will you need that by?"

"Tomorrow," the professor told him. He grinned to himself. _This is tough work keeping up the image of a supervillain,_ he thought, _but every little bit counts. The bigger the sense of danger, the more they'll push themselves into improving…_

* * *

The next day, the hotline buzzed, while the girls were watching TV. "Bubbles, could you get that?" Blossom asked, not budging from her position on the couch. "I don't want to miss this part…"

"Me neither," Buttercup said

Bubbles, who had already seen the Puppet Pals episode they were watching at least a dozen times, flew up from the couch and dashed over to the phone, picking it up and saying sweetly, "Powerpuff Hotline, can I help you?"

"Powerpuff Girls!" the mayor shouted from the phone in a worried voice. "That guy from yesterday's back! He's attacking Townsville again!"

Bubbles nearly dropped the receiver, her hands were shaking so much. She managed to say, "N-no problem, Mayor…w-we'll be right there!" She hung up the phone and called out in a high-pitched voice, "_Dr. Neutron's back!_"  
Blossom and Buttercup glanced at each other, and Blossom said, "Okay, this is it…we can beat him this time, just take your time and make sure to follow every plan to the letter, okay?"

"Got it!" Buttercup replied firmly. The two of them flew up from the couch and joined Bubbles, heading out the door. They quickly soared out of the suburbs and into the city, looking for any sign of Dr. Neutron. A few small explosions from the northeast portion of Townsville alerted them, and they headed for it immediately.

Hovering above that section of the city, Dr. Neutron was sitting on some sort of device that resembled a motorcycle without the wheels. It was armed with weapons along the sides, and he was taking shots at the street below with a laser. His head swiveled around as he saw the girls approaching, and he said, "Ah, the minor annoyances return. I have no time for you PowerPests today. Shoo!"

"You're gonna _pay_ for that!" Buttercup said, gritting her teeth. "_No _one calls us pests and gets away with it!"

With a slight incline of his head, Dr. Neutron said, "Nonsense. I shall 'get away with' whatever I please. I think I shall now get away with _this_ as well…" Before the girls could move, the front of his hoverbike suddenly blasted a beam of brilliant green energy towards a building in the distance. The girls started to fly that way, but it was too fast, and in the next moment, it struck the building, reducing it to rubble in mere seconds.

_Whoa,_ Blossom thought…_Maybe I was wrong about this guy, he means business!_ _We'd better find a way to stop him, before he levels all of Townsville! But how?_

"Stop it!" Bubbles shouted. "Leave Townsville alone!"

Dr. Neutron laughed and hovered up a little higher on his bike. "Or what? You girls can't stop me! _No_ one can stop me!"

"Girls! Attack pattern gamma-beta-twelve, NOW!" Blossom called out quickly. Bubbles and Buttercup fired their eyebeams simultaneously at the hoverbike, but Dr. Neutron had just enough space to dive down underneath the 'X' spot where the beams crossed. He was dodging right into Blossom, though, who had flown up to that point and prepared to slam a fist into him…

A robotic arm had sprouted out of the front of the hoverbike, however, reaching out and grabbing hold of Blossom before she could get close enough. Blossom tried to break free, but it held her tightly. _How in the world…?_ she thought. _He anticipated the plan! There's no way!_

"Blossom! Hold on!" Bubbles exclaimed, diving down towards the back of the hoverbike, and a second later, Buttercup started flying in that direction as well. Dr. Neutron grinned beneath his mask and spun the bike around in midair…the arm holding Blossom swung like a club, striking Bubbles and batting her away. The bike continued it's rotation an the claw opened up in mid-swing, flinging Blossom from its clutches and slamming her right into the approaching Buttercup, knocking them both onto a rooftop.

As all three of them got up from where they respectively landed, they heard a sound and looked up…the bike had launched three small missiles, and each one was homing in on a separate girl. They took off, but the missiles stayed in close pursuit. They weaved back and forth, trying to shake the missiles off, but they couldn't.

"Everyone, together, now!" Blossom shouted. The three of them veered towards each other, their missiles in hot pursuit. As they approached each other, just before colliding, they pulled a sharp angle upwards, so that the missiles would be streaking towards each other. The three of them looked down as they gained altitude to watch the missiles when they collided…

However, they didn't collide…the missiles likewise made a sharp upward turn, a mere inch apart from each other. As the missiles streaked up towards them, the missiles actually latched together into each other, becoming one giant missile. The girls were too stunned by it's unexpected maneuverability, and the missile struck them dead on, exploding, the blast tossing all three of them in opposite directions.

They landed in the street below. Each of them picked themselves up from the tiny crater they left behind, and rubbed their heads. "Ughh," Buttercup muttered, "Now what?"

"Now…" Blossom said, thinking. "…now…" She honestly didn't know. That last plan of attack was their best shot, but Dr. Neutron shrugged it off like it was _nothing_. She was beginning to feel helpless, and by the looks in the other girls' eyes, they were feeling the same way too.

That moment of hesitation was all that Dr. Neutron needed…he flew overhead quickly on his hoverbike, dropping small, round devices out from a hatch on the rear. They landed on the street in a circle around each of the girls, and an energy field snapped up, surrounding them. They each leapt to their feet and tried to punch through the field or fire their eyebeams through it, but the field held strong.

"Trapped again," Dr. Neutron said. "I must depart now, but next time, I won't be so easy on you…"

"Wait!" Blossom shouted. "Why _are _you toying with us like this? Why aren't you finishing us off?"

_Uh oh, think fast,_ he thought, then said, "Are you saying you'd prefer the alternative, Blossom?"

"NO, no," Blossom said quickly, shaking her head. "But it still doesn't make any sense…there's gotta be a reason, and I have to know!"

_Ok, _he thought_…something ominous…let's see…_ Narrowing his eyes, he said, "Oh, you'll find out soon enough. I have plans for you…yes, indeed…" With that, he ignited the boosters on the hoverbike, and flew off into the distance, laughing the whole way out.

_Uh oh…I don't like the sound of that,_ Buttercup thought, watching the whole scene from behind her own energy field. _What does he mean? Oh man…maybe we should just get outta here while we've got the chance…but…we can't just let him take over Townsville! Man, if it weren't for all his little gizmos and stuff, I'd be beating the stuffing outta him right about now, and…_

Another thought occurred to her, and she brightened, calling out, "Blossom, we've gotta find a way to make it so he can't use any of his devices and stuff…that'll put him outta commision!"

"Hey…" Bubbles said, thinking about that. "That's a good idea!"

"Buttercup, you're right!" Blossom said, smiling. "He _is _relying on technology, isn't he? That could very well be the best way to defeat this guy. Let's go see the professor…maybe he can make something to disable all his stuff or something."

Bubbles said, "All right!" She stopped and stared at the energy fields and said, "Um, how long do you think these batteries are gonna last?"

* * *

When the girls eventually got back home, they went straight to the professor to tell him their plans. "So you see," Blossom explained, "we need you to build something that can disable all his weapons and little devices. Maybe something that shuts down anything mechanical within a certain range?"

The professor scratched his chin as though pondering about how to build such a device. In reality, he was thinking, _How do I get out of _this _one? If I don't give them help, they'll really start to get suspicious, but if I _do _give them help, it'll ruin the whole point of their training. _"Well, again," the professor replied, "I need more information on the devices he uses. I can't build this unless I can make sure that his technology will be affected by it. I need to know what types of metals he's using, what kind of power, all that sort of information…"

Bubbles took out a small, round device and handed it to the professor, saying, "He used these on us. Will they help?"

_Shoot,_ the professor thought. _Time for plan B…_ He examined the device carefully and said, "It might, but I'm going to have to study it for a while. Building the actual device will take even longer. Do you have that much time?"

"How long's it gonna take?" Buttercup asked.

"I conservatively estimate around four or five days…" the professor told them.

"Well…" Blossom said, looking uneasy. "Okay…it's still our best shot. We'll have to use it as a backup plan, though. We've gotta come up with something to surprise Dr. Neutron in the meantime. The next thing we should be doing is trying to figure out where his hideout is. If we attack him at the source, we might be able to catch him device-less."

"I've got it!" Bubbles exclaimed. "C'mon, upstairs! I'll show you!" Bubbles flew off quickly, heading for the stairway, and the other two girls followed. The professor watched them leave, then nervously bit his lip. _They're doing a lot better,_ he thought, _but I wonder what they're planning? I'd better ask them the details before they try it, or else Dr. Neutron's identity will be at risk. This could be tougher than I thought…_

****

TO BE CONTINUED…


	3. Chapter 3

**__**

To Teach His Own

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

CHAPTER 3

The girls came back down from their meeting upstairs, and the professor was waiting for them at the bottom of the steps. He still needed to figure out what Bubbles' plan was, so that he would be ready when they tried to use it on Dr. Neutron. Nonchalantly, he asked, "So, where did you run off to in such a hurry?"

"Just goin' over the plan," Buttercup told him.

"Yeah," Bubbles said, "I used some blocks to make a little map of Townsville, so we could go over every step of it. I really think it'll work!"

Blossom nodded in agreement, "We had to make a few slight changes, but I think with our combined plan, it'll really do a number against him!"

"That's great!" the professor said, forcing some enthusiasm. "Ah…might I take a look at these plans to see what you've come up with?"

Buttercup shook her head, "Nah, _this_ time we're not gonna risk breathing a word of it to _anyone_. Dr. Neutron knew all our other plans, so he's probably watchin' us or listenin' in on us somehow. The less said, the better."

"But you can show _me_, right?" the professor said hopefully.

Narrowing her eyes very slightly, Blossom said, "We'd rather not…just to be on the safe side…"

The professor felt slightly nervous at the look Blossom had just given him. _Does she suspect? _he wondered. _I hope not…_ He decided not to press the issue any further and said, "All right…I just wanted to be sure the plan was foolproof enough, but if you three came up with it together, I'm sure it'll work just fine…"

* * *

Hovering above the street via his jet boots, Dr. Neutron fired volley after volley of shots from the twin high-energy pistols he held in each hand. Blossom wove between the blasts as best she could, although it took all of her concentration. Guessing that someone was trying to sneak up behind him, he spun around, firing with one of the blasters and catching Buttercup with it at point-blank range. The blast from it sent her plummeting from the sky.

Bubbles was under her in a second to catch her, and Dr. Neutron watched, thinking, _That better not have been their plan, because it was rather easy to predict._ He suddenly turned his attention back to Blossom, who had taken a deep breath and fired a blast of her ice breath at him. He turned off the jet boots, dropping out of the air into a free fall and barely avoiding the icy gust of air that passed above him. He re-ignited his jet boots just before hitting the ground.

Shaking her head to get back to her senses, Buttercup called out, "This isn't working! We need to try somethin' else!"

Bubbles set her down on the ground, then took off towards Dr. Neutron, battle-ready. Blossom noticed this charge and exclaimed, "Bubbles! What are you doing? Don't attack him head-on!" Bubbles ignored her and continued her advance. Dr. Neutron didn't have anything ready to incapacitate her, not expecting a direct charge like this, so instead, he holstered his pistols quickly and swung a punch, a green energy field surrounding his fist to add extra power to the punch.

It connected on her jaw, knocking her to one side through a window of a building, and from the sound of it, the velocity carried her through the opposite side of the building as well. He forced a laugh at this, although inside, he was wondering if Bubbles would be all right. _I didn't hit her too hard,_ he thought, _just enough to knock her out I hope._

Blossom had already flown off to check on Bubbles, while Buttercup began an attack on him again, this time using her eyebeams. Dr. Neutron quickly pulled out a small mirror-like object off of his belt and held it out…the beams struck it and rebounded back, although they were more condensed on the rebound, almost like a laser. Buttercup stopped firing the eyebeams and rolled to one side to avoid the reflected beams.

Blossom returned to the fray, gritting her teeth. "Bubbles is down for the count," she called out to Buttercup. "Looks like it's up to us! Direct attack, now!"

"You've got it!" Buttercup responded, and both of them shot towards Dr. Neutron together, from opposite sides.

Dr. Neutron nearly rolled his eyes, thinking, _What do they hope to accomplish? Have they forgotten about my protective shield already?_ He figured they must have, because in the next moment, they were upon him, and struck into his invisible energy field. They both cried out as the electricity from it coursed through them, and they fell towards the ground a moment later. They landed on the street, unmoving…knocked out.

_Hmm,_ Dr. Neutron thought. _The field shouldn't have knocked them out entirely. Maybe it was because of their charge. Oh well…either way, my job here is done. Time to get home so I can get everything in order for their return._ Without wasting another moment, he turned and flew off in the direction of home.

_They're definitely putting more effort into this,_ he thought as he followed a path between the buildings on the way out…_Their attacks are a lot more coordinated, and I can feel that they're even a little stronger than before, too. Hopefully, if I can keep this up, I can get them to improve to levels beyond even…_

He was distracted by a brief motion out of the corner of his eye. Curiously, he glanced behind himself, but didn't see anything. _Strange,_ he thought. Resuming his flight through the city, he pulled the small reflective device off from his belt and examined it, as though looking for any damage, although in reality he was using the mirrored surface to look behind himself.

It took him a moment, but he spotted Bubbles, staying very low to the ground, following him cautiously from a distance. _Clever,_ he thought. _That means they set the whole thing up! So _that_ was their plan…Bubbles pretends to be knocked out so that she can tail me back to my hideout…I'll bet the other two girls pretended to be knocked out as well. It almost worked, too, but now that I'm wise to it…_

He turned sharply and darted down an alley. Bubbles saw this, and she waited for a moment quietly, listening from her position just outside the alley. All was quiet, so she turned the corner to follow him in. She didn't get more than a foot or two, though, because Dr. Neutron was standing right there…she bumped into his outstretched hand, and fell back slightly in shock.

Energy built up in front of his palm, forming a ball of green energy…as menacing as he could muster, he hissed, "Nice try, Bubbles, but Dr. Neutron is not so easily fooled. Unfortunately for you." Bubbles could only gape as the ball of energy launched away from his palm towards her…before it hit her, however, it exploded in a bright, blinding flash of light.

Bubbles clasped her hands over her eyes, rubbing them. She blinked a few times, waiting for her vision to return, which took about thirty seconds or so. Once she could see again, she saw that Dr. Neutron was no longer around. He, in fact, was well outside the city limits by this point. _Close call,_ he thought, _but it'll be interesting to see what they'll try next…_

* * *

Blossom was stumped. She sat down on the floor of their room, furiously going over a set of plans, trying to come up with _something _that would work. Buttercup and Bubbles were both around the plans as well, equally puzzled. "All right," Blossom said. "Let's go over this again…Dr. Neutron has extremely advanced technology, has studied us and can anticipate our moves, and doesn't have any apparent weaknesses…"

"That's impossible," Buttercup frowned. "_Everyone _has a weakness."

Bubbles thought for a second, then said, "Maybe if we were just tougher…"

"What do you mean?" Blossom said.

"Well," Bubbles explained, "his weapons and stuff are pretty strong, but if we were tougher, they wouldn't hurt us anyway…"

"Yeah…" Buttercup said, thinking about that and brightening up, "…yeah, that way, we could just wear him down! But it'd take us forever to toughen ourselves up…"

"Maybe not," Blossom said with a grin. The other girls looked at her, and she suggested, "How about we get the professor to make us some personal forcefields or something? Sort of an artificial way of toughening up…"

All three of them nodded, then flew out from the room to go see the professor, who was downstairs watching the news on television. "Professor!" all three of them called out. He looked up from the television curiously, and they quickly explained their idea to him.

The professor scratched his chin, and said, "It's not a bad idea, but I…"

"But what?" Buttercup demanded.

"I…uh…" he said, thinking, _Argh, I can't think of an excuse! But I have to come up with something!_ "…uh, I don't have the parts necessary to build them…"

"Sure you do," Blossom said. "Just pull one of your old inventions apart or something to get the parts you need."

"But it'll take time…" the professor explained.

Blossom shrugged, "So are those devices we wanted you to build that can disable his equipment. We still don't have them, though…"

The professor felt cornered. To avoid them getting any wiser to him, he said, "Those _will _take time, but I guess I can have the forcefields to you by tonight, if I go to work on them now."

Bubbles cheered, "Yay! Thanks professor, we knew you could help us!"

The professor managed a weak smile, then got up and said, "Well, I'd best be off to work on it, then." He left the girls and went downstairs into his lab. Once there, he sat down at a table and laid down his head, resting it on his arms and sighing.

_Now what?_ he thought. _I can't build these forcefields for them…well, I _can_, but it'd ruin the whole training. No, I need to find a way out of building these for them, and hopefully, something to stop them from asking for my help after this. Only on their own will they learn to really strive to improve themselves, but they're also going to need an incentive. I have to come up with something for Dr. Neutron to do that'll _really _force them to push their limits. Something they can't ignore, like trying to blow up the entire city, or…_

A smile crept across his face, and he said aloud, "Two birds with one stone…"

* * *

"When's he getting back?" Buttercup asked irritably, hovering back and forth by the front door. "He's been gone for more than three hours!"

"I don't know," Blossom said, from her position on the couch in the living room. "He said he had to go get a few things, but this seems like kind of a long time, doesn't it?"

Bubbles was pressed up against the glass of the window, watching outside for any sign of the professor. "Where could he _be_?" Bubbles fretted. "He shoulda been back by now! Maybe we should go look for him…"

"No," Blossom ordered, "we stay put until he…" At that moment, the hotline buzzed. Blossom broke off from what she was saying and rushed over to answer it. "Hello, Mayor?"

The voice on the other end wasn't the mayor, but its mechanical overtones were recognizable anyway as it said, "Hello, Blossom."

Narrowing her eyes darkly, Blossom said, "Dr. Neutron. How did you get on this line?" The other girls flew nearby to listen in on the conversation.

"A simple matter of tapping in," he explained, "but that's not important right now. What _is_ important is that I have something you want."

There was a momentary pause, and then the professor's voice, sounding scared, came over the line, "G-girls?"

Blossom gasped, "Professor?!"

* * *

In a little makeshift hideout elsewhere in the city, the professor had set up a lot of equipment, plus a few new weapons. He spoke into the telephone, trying to sound frightened as he said, "Girls…h-he's got me held at…" Breaking off from his own speech, he stuck Dr. Neutron's mask over his face quickly and spoke, his voice now being mechanically augmented again, "That's enough, just to show you that I'm serious."

"You let the professor go, Dr. Neutron!" Bossom's voice came from the phone, shaking with rage.

"I thought I made myself clear that _I_ give the orders around here," the professor replied, still wearing the mask. "After all your defeats, I thought you would have realized that by now."

Blossom calmed down just a little, and said, "What do you want?"

"Nothing," he replied with a chuckle. "Just to prove to you that I can do whatever I wish around here, and that you can't do anything to stop it. Goodbye."

"No, wait…!" Blossom began, but he had already hung up. The professor set the mask aside and grinned, thinking, _That ought to do it. Not only won't they be able to ask my advice anymore, but now, they'll be even more determined to defeat Dr. Neutron. If this doesn't make them fight at their absolute best, I don't know what will…_

**__**

TO BE CONTINUED…


	4. Chapter 4

**__**

To Teach His Own

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

CHAPTER 4

Blossom slowly set the receiver back down on the hotline, as the other girls watched, none of them moving, as they thought about what they had just heard. "I can't believe it," Blossom finally said. "No ransom…no leads…nothing. He's just doing this because he _can_…"

"We've gotta find him!" Buttercup exclaimed. "And when we do, we're gonna _beat _him! He _can't_ win again, not this time!"

Blossom nodded, but said, "We don't know where he's at, though…"

"And…" Bubbles said, crying a little, "…and what about the professor? He could be anywhere too! Maybe he hid him someplace else…"

"No, why would he do that?" Buttercup asked.

"So that we don't find both of them?" Bubbles pointed out.

Blossom waved her hands and said, "Okay, listen…we have to come up with a plan here. We can either sit around waiting for the next time Dr. Neutron decides to attack the city, or we can continue looking for his hideout. I think we should go for the hideout; that'd be our best chance to defeat him."

"Right," Buttercup agreed. "Let's go, then!"

All three of them flew out from the house, heading for Townsville. "Where do we look first?" Bubbles asked during the flight to the city.

"At the places we fought him," Blossom told her. "We'll see which direction he flew off from each time…from the three positions in the city, it should give us a general idea of where his hideout is, and we can search from there. I'll go to the first site…Buttercup, you take the second site, and Bubbles, head for the third."

They split up as they approached the skies over Townsville, each heading to a different part of the city. Blossom reached the area where they first fought Dr. Neutron and glanced around. She spotted the sidewalk that she remembered being incapacitated on, and turned to look in the direction that she had seen him fly away. _Bingo,_ she thought. _Now to let the other girls know I'm ready…_

Blossom gained some altitude, appearing over the rooftops but keeping herself pointed in that direction. Way off in the distance, she spotted the other two lining up similarly. She waved, then started flying forward, and the other girls started moving as well.

The angles started to bring them closer to each other, although at a steep angle so that their paths didn't cross yet…they looked around as they flew, now close enough to talk to each other. Buttercup said, "Hey, wait a second…"

"…aren't we…" Bubbles started to say.

"…on our way out of Townsville?" Blossom finished. Sure enough, below them the edge of the city was passing underneath them. They were now over the suburban area, and there were no longer any skyscrapers to be found. They all noticed two things as their paths finally crossed: they were over a grove of trees, and finally, they were only a block away from home.

"Wow…" Buttercup remarked. "You mean, he was this close to home the whole time?"

"Search those trees!" Blossom ordered. "Maybe he's got an underground hideout somewhere, and if he does, I want to know where!"

Bubbles flew down near the edge of the trees and said, "I've got a better idea…" As the other girls watched, she cupped her hands next to her mouth and started chirping, then making little chittering sounds…she went through several more animal calls, then waited. A few seconds later, birds, squirrels, rabbits and other animals appeared at the edge of the woods, and she quickly started 'talking' with them.

Buttercup slapped a hand to her forehead and sighed, "Aw man, not again…"

"No, she's right," Blossom said. "That's the fastest way to search through all the trees. Watch!" As they looked down at all the animals below, they turned and headed back amongst the trees, all of them heading in different directions and searching carefully through every part of the woods. After only a little while, they all started to regroup and head back to where Bubbles was.

She listened to them 'talk', then flew back up to the other girls, saying, "They couldn't find anything. They searched everywhere, but there's no sign of a hideout."

"Very peculiar," Blossom remarked, then gasped, "He must live in the area! He probably went into the woods to change his disguise unseen. But who lives around here that he could be?"

"Mr. Smith?" Bubbles asked, pointing to the Smith's house, not far from them.

Buttercup shook her head, "No way. He's not that bright. If it's someone that lives near us, though, then it'd make sense that he'd know all our moves…he's probably spying on us."

"Yes, but who…" Blossom began. She was interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the distance. "Dr. Neutron! He must be attacking again…let's go!" The three of them left the woods and headed off in the direction of the sound as fast as they could go.

* * *

Dr. Neutron hovered above the street, held aloft by the jets that were on the end of a pair of delta wings now fixed to his back. In his arms was a rather large weapon which he had just used to launch an explosive into the air. _This will get their attention, _he thought. _They'll be here in no time…_

He was right, for in the next instant, the Powerpuff Girls arrived on the scene. They were looking _very _angry, and Blossom pointed at him, shouting, "Dr. Neutron! Tell us where the professor is, _now!_"

"It won't be that simple," Dr. Neutron cackled back. "If you can defeat me in combat, I will tell you where your professor is…which means, you'll _never_ see him again!"

Blossom tried to look through his mask with her x-ray vision while he spoke, but couldn't. _Whatever his armor is made of, _she thought, _it must be something we can't see through. He must have known this! But how? How does one person know so much about us? This is hopeless! How are we going to beat someone that seems to know more about us than _we_ do?!_ A glance over to the other girls made her realize that they were probably thinking the same thing.

"I'm waiting," Dr. Neutron said. "Are you going to just float there, or are you going to fight me?"

Unexpectedly to him, however, the girls gave troubled expressions rather than combat-ready ones. Tears came to Bubbles' eyes, and she cried, "We…we can't…please, give him back…"

Blossom pleaded, "Please…he's not important to your plans…but he means the world to us…"

Even Buttercup looked saddened, "We'll do anything…just let him go…"

Dr. Neutron was unprepared for this…his heart ached to see them react this way, but he forced himself to call back, "Fools! You _will_ fight me this instant!" He raised his weapon and started firing beams of energy from it at them. The three of them dodged, but none of them made any kind of attack back. Dr. Neutron gritted his teeth, "I said _fight!_"

"No," Blossom said, suddenly peering oddly at him and thinking, _This doesn't seem right somehow…_ "Why is it so important that we fight? What are you planning?"

"Never mind that!" Dr. Neutron said angrily. "If you don't fight me, then I will be forced to destroy you…"

"Destroy us?" Buttercup said, almost with a laugh. "So far, you haven't even _hurt _us."

Blossom thought about that, and slowly said, "Yeah…she's right! All your attacks so far have been to stun us, capture us, or knock us out. Mojo wasn't _half_ as hard to fight as you, but he still used _lethal_ force. You don't want to destroy us, or else you would be doing the same. So you're obviously planning something, and I want to know what!"

"I will tell you nothing," Dr. Neutron countered. "And there is still no way you can defeat me."

Buttercup grinned, and said, "Think again. Blossom…Plan Beta-Cappa-13?"

With a nod, Blossom smiled as well, "Sure, perfect time for it." As they approached, Dr. Neutron thought, _Uh oh…they must have come up with this plan earlier when I was out…I've never heard of it. I'd better be on my guard._ He made sure his forcefield was active, then gripped the barrel of his weapon, ready for anything.

Blossom and Buttercup suddenly both started firing on the same spot with their eyebeams…judging by their reactions, they were putting everything they had into it. The shield flared up and kept them out, of course, but then they started moving the beams in opposite directions, and a small hole in the field opened up between them. It wasn't very big, but it was just big enough that Bubbles managed to fly near it and unleash one of her sonic screams.

The intense sound waves ripped through the weapon in his hands causing it to break apart, and the forcefield was disrupted as well, deactivating with a loud, electrical *_snap_* sound. He suddenly realized he was helpless, and dove down, drawing two pistols from his belt. By the time he had lifted them to fire, though, the three had already split up in opposite directions, diving down at a curved angle.

They met up again just underneath Dr. Neutron, mere feet above the ground. Buttercup and Bubbles each grabbed hold of one of his arms from behind, pinning them against his back. Blossom took advantage of this opening before he could recover, and swung a couple punches to his chest. His armor cracked under the impact, and she followed it up with a punch to the jaw.

Dr. Neutron's mask was shattered from the blow, and it landed on the street in pieces. Blossom could only gape as she saw the now-unmasked villain, and the other girls were speechless as well. "Pr—…Professor?" Blossom stammered.

They set him down on the ground and hovered in front of him. Rubbing his jaw, he forced a smile and said, "Hello, girls…uhh, I can explain…"

"Now, I get it!" Buttercup said with a frown. "No _wonder_ you had all those powerful devices and stuff!"

"And no _wonder_ you knew everything about us!" Blossom added, equally upset. "All our plans, and _everything_…"

Even Bubbles looked furious, as she shouted, "You've got some 'splaining to do!"

"Well, it's like this…" the professor told them. "You've been so lax in your superhero training for a while, and you just weren't trying to improve yourselves any. This worried me, because although you could handle just about anything that the villains were throwing at you, I knew that someday, a villain could come along that you weren't strong enough to defeat. That day could spell disaster for Townsville, and for yourselves as well, and that's something I never wanted to see…"

Removing the rest of his cracked armor and setting it aside, he continued, "I realized that you needed an incentive to train harder, and so I created Dr. Neutron, a villain with advanced technology that knew your every move. Faced with an opponent you couldn't defeat, you would be _forced _to train harder, until you could eventually beat him. By fabricating the villain myself, I knew that it would be a safe situation for you to face, so that if you really come up against someone like Dr. Neutron one day, you can defeat him safely."

"But…" Blossom protested. "…but why not tell us?"

"Because," the professor answered, "if you knew that it was just me, you wouldn't have tried as hard. I wanted you to put everything you had into it. That's also why I didn't want to help you myself. I admit, I wasn't planning on having to 'kidnap' myself, but you left me with no choice, asking me for assistance. That would have defeated the purpose of this training exercise as well."

"What about Townsville?" Bubbles pointed out. "You were attacking it…"

The professor nodded, "I had the Mayor's permission, and I was careful not to damage anything that I didn't already have the okay for." He noticed they still looked troubled, and he said, "Look, I did this for your own good, girls. Imagine what would have happened if someone like Dr. Neutron came along, and you were as unprepared for him as you were with me…he probably wouldn't have gone easy on you, either."

"Yeah," Buttercup said reluctantly, "that's true…"

"But now," the professor continued, "you've improved. You worked hard to find a way around my defenses and managed to defeat me. Not only that, but I could see a vast improvement of your fighting skills as our battles went on. So it was a success! I'm sorry for the methods, but you have to admit that it worked."

Blossom slowly smiled and said, "Hey, I guess you're right…we really pulled it all together there, didn't we? You didn't have to scare us like that, though…"

Nodding, the professor said, "I _am _sorry about that…I just wish there was some way I could make it up to you…"

The girls looked at each other, exchanging grins, and all three of them said, "Welllll…."

* * *

The girls sat around the kitchen table, each of them eating a huge slice of chocolate cake. They didn't stay huge for long, though, because the girls made short work of them. "Next!" they all called out together.

The professor hurried over to the table with three more slices of the cake, and the girls dug into them. Looking back over at the counter next to the sink, he sighed at the stack of dishes that had built up, not to mention empty cake trays. "How can three little girls eat so much cake?" he wondered aloud. Shaking his head, he decided that he'd better get back to baking…

And so, once again, the day was saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!

**__**

THE END


End file.
